31 August 2016
Christer Fredriksson/Lonely
Planet/Getty
By Karl Gruber
That’s one small step for an
elephant, but a giant leap for the survival of tiny aquatic animals. In
the swamp
forests of Kibale National Park, Uganda, every step elephants take can
give rise to a footprint-shaped mini-pond, holding up to 200 litres of water
and dozens of
invertebrate species.
“I was surprised to find out that
these footprints were water-filled all year round, and that they harboured such
a high diversity,” says Wolfram Remmers at the University of Koblenz in
Germany. Surveying 30 such prints over a three-day period in 2014, Remmers and
his colleagues found over 60 species, including beetles, spiders and worms –
plus tadpoles.
Many smaller species may live
there, too – the team’s sampling method meant they only caught things bigger
than 2 millimetres.
The footprints probably play an
important role in allowing these small life forms to spread, as they form a
network of connected ponds.
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